With the huge potential of social media in marketing purposes, many successful companies are ready to invest resources and expertise into that area. There are several ways to do this, and now you can learn from the best.
Strategies vs. Tools – This is one of the areas that is still developing, and the new tools and techniques are being launched as you read this. It’s undisputable that your company can benefit from the latest trends and technologies, especially if you are targeting younger, more media-oriented audience. On the other hand, it’s often proven that it is the actual marketing strategy that makes the difference, rather than the tool itself. The tool, however, can help the company to develop a new marketing strategy.
Establish a Goal – It is hard to achieve seamless integration of social media, if marketing goals are not clearly defined. In other words, social media should be employed only after a specific customer objective has been identified. For example an organization may use social media approach to introduce customer into and lead them through the purchase funnel.
Know your Next Step – Social media campaigns are an excellent way of creating brand or product awareness. Once the awareness has reached a desired level, a company mush have the capabilities and understanding how to transform awareness into purchase intent. Similarly, if the campaign goal is brand advocacy building, the marketing experts would need to boost the organization’s message and improve customer loyalty.
Resource-Saving Templates – Many companies are using brand toolkits as a standard procedure to guide local markets by providing templates and guidelines how to customize the content and present global brands. Social media toolkits are also being used for enhancing strategic alignment and creating more cohesive brand image across the globe and platforms. These templates for Facebook and Twitter posts help reducing and resources for developing social media content. Companies like this social media agency Melbourne are experts in creating social media toolkits.
In-house Social Media Experts – Rather than operating from a separate team or location, social media experts should work in unison with the brand and customer teams. In this way not only a better integration is achieved, but also they are also capable of real-time update with the communication objectives. Social media experts are involved in the latest platforms and know their potentials and ways of generating interest from present and future customers, fans and followers. In this way, brand teams will get a valuable insight in the mechanics of social platforms which will ultimately lead to better results.
From Post to Purchase – As a unique medium where companies can connect with their customers on a continual, personal and on-the-spot manner, social platforms are an invaluable mechanism that finalizes the company’s marketing effort to its goal – purchase. On the ground level, if a potential customer/follower post a question about a specific product, the company should respond promptly with a tweet or an email which includes tailored discounts or promotions.
Pros and Cons of Outsourcing – Social media is developing rapidly and many organizations are having hard time catching-up with the pace, so they resort to outsourcing social media activities to third party agencies. However convenient this solution might be, it also carries the risk of poorer integration of social media strategies. The third party agencies rarely manage to fully grasp the whole picture of an organization’s marketing strategy. This threat has forced some companies to include more social media activities in house or to establish deep partnership models with the outsourcing agencies.
The result of social media seamlessly integrated into a company’s marketing strategy is improved efficiency and effectiveness on all levels. Good balance of strategic marketing elements indicates a company’s understanding for its audience and the intention of maintaining the steady flow of followers and customers.
